Nine one-hundredths to zephaniah b



(No Model.)

w. P. HEATHMAN. MEANSIOR EXTR AGTI-NGGOLD AND SILVER PRO-M SEA WATER.

No. 576,118. Patented Feb. 2, 1897.

, ,UNITED STATES PATENT Orricn.

WILLIAM F. I-IEATHMAN, OF SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF FORTY- NINE ONE-HUNDREDTHS TO ZEPHANIAH B. WVEST, OF SAME PLACE.

MEANS FOR EXTRAC TING GOLD AND SILVER FROM SEA-WATER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 576,118, dated February 2, 1897.

' Application filed April 1 1895. $erial No. 544,121. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: bon e, which shall be the coarser of the two Be it known thatLWILLIAMF. HEATHMAN, kinds used, and upon which I place a layer of the city of Santa Ana, county of Orange, of finely-broken carbon d, and thus alternate State of California, have invented a new and with coarse layers and fine layers of carbon 5 5 5 useful Means for Extracting Gold and Silver until the filter is twelve inches, more or less,

from Sea-Water; and I do hereby declare that in thickness vertically. Over the carbon lay the following is a description of said art, proca wire-cloth g to fit the size of the tank or ess, or invention in such full, clear, and conany subdivision of the area of the tank, and cise terms as to enable any person skilled in upon the wire-cloth nail down and cover the IO the art or science to which it is connected to whole filter with a top covering of planks h compound, construct,inake, and use the same. or slats perforated with large holes for the In order to extract said metals, I pass the free admission of the sea-water to the carbon sea-water or salt-lake water through a filter filter. made of carbon, and the gold and silver held In practice when the tank is filled with 15 in solution in the sea-water or salt-lake water sea-water the sea-water enters the orifices in l are freed from the chemical combinations the top of the filter h, thus constructed and by in'which they occur in the water. The chlogravity passes through the filter and through rids and bromicls of gold and silver in soluthe cloth at the bottom of the filter and finds tion when passing through the carbon filter an outlet through the perforations in the bot- 20 are decomposed by the reducing power of the tom of thetank.

carbon, the liberation of chlorin, and the de- The wire-cloth and wooden top covering struction of the bromin combination, with the containing perforations for the admission of result that metallic gold and silver are prewater may be dispensed with when coke is cipitated in thecarbon filter and deposited in used as a filter, for the reason that the spe- 2 5 the pores and upon the surface of the carbon. cific gravity of coke being greater than sea- Before proceeding to a description of the water the coke remains stationary in the botcarbon filter and the manner of handling the tom of the filter; but it is necessary to use sea-water it will sufiice to say that when the this wire-cloth and Wooden covering of the carbon filter has collected enough gold and filter when charcoal is used on account of its 30 silver to pay for extraction the carbon is regreat buoyancy and liability to float away.

moved from the filter and burned or lixivi- I have found that for the extraction of silated for the extraction of gold and silver acver in this process it is not advisable to use cording to' the well-known chemical laws for a cotton cloth to be placed over the carbon. the extraction of particular metals; but when My reason for making this statement is that 3 5 the carbon is burned the ashes are collected when I have used a cotton cloth on top of the and fused with borax and carbonate of soda carbonI have found no silver collected in the for the extraction of gold and silver, and when carbon, thus proving that the cotton cloth is the fused mass cools off the gold and silver an obstacle inthe way of collecting silver in bullion will be found at the lowest point of the filter, since some of the silver in the sea- 40 the melting-pot or crucible. water is not in solution, but consists of mi- The carboufilter is constructed as follows, nute particles of silver chlorid held in susreferen'ce being made to the drawing accompension, which enter the filter and become panying this application: Beginning with a entangled in the carbon but for the cloth. wooden tank or vat of anysize or height that Hence I have advised the use of a wire-cloth 45 maybe required for large oi small operations, or none at all when coke is used.

the bottom of said tank f is perforated with This tank and filter thus described I use holes of an almost unlimited number, large on the land or on a structure built over the enough to allow the water that filters to freely sea-water whenever power is used to pump flow out. On the floor of the tank I lay a the seawater into the tank for filtration; but 50 cloth g, either of wire or cotton. I next dethe most economical way I use this tank and posit upon the cloth thus laid a layer of carfilter in this process, and which entirely dispenses with the cost of power, is described as follows:

I construct atank and filter thus described in the sea-water of some quiet bay which has the advantage of the rise and fall of the tides, so constructed that the wooden bottom of the filter f will be above low-tide mark 0 only a few inches, and when the tide rises the seawater enters the tank by means of an automatic valve or gate a, which swings inward while the tides and seawater are coming in; but after the sea-water has filled the tank at high tide b the gate closes automatically when the tide begins to recede and flow out of the tank, thus leaving the tank full of water above the level of the sea, and the sea-water filters through the carbon filter in the bottom of the tank by gravity.

Now, having described my invention and discovery and shown the manner of using it, I particularly claim the following:

1. A tank arranged in position to be filled on the inflow of a tide and having an inwardly-openin g valve or gate adapted to close on the reflux of the tide, said tank being provided at its bottom with openings and a carbonaceous filtering medium, substantially as described.

2. A tank mounted on suitable supports" I WILLIAM F. I-IEATHMAN.

lVitnesses:

A. J. Woon, R. A. BROWN. 

